Thursday

Back in December, the Marlins stole the show at baseball’s winter meetings by signing three All Stars in a spending spree unprecedented in franchise history.

Owner Jeffrey Loria’s mission was clear: End the team’s first year at Marlins Park with an October championship.

A little more than seven months later, the Marlins are the talk of baseball again, but for all the wrong reasons.

With 64 games left in the season, the Marlins are a disaster. They’re eight games under .500 and 13 ½ games out of first place as they open a three-game series tonight against the San Diego Padres.

"They have just underachieved en masse,’’ baseball operations President Larry Beinfest said. "We had a completely different picture of how this summer would look.’’

The three All Stars Miami signed in December to a collective $191 million — Jose Reyes, Heath Bell and Mark Buehrle – have not performed to their expectations. But they’re certainly not alone on a list of underachievers that includes pitcher Josh Johnson and left fielder Logan Morrison.

As a result, the Marlins this week traded away former All Star Hanley Ramirez, All Star second baseman Omar Infante, starting pitcher Anibal Sanchez and reliever Randy Choate.

In return, Miami moved more than $40 million in contractual obligations off its books and brought in a starting pitcher (Nathan Eovaldi) with 22 games of major- league experience and four minor leaguers.

The debacle leaves the team in a quandary with its fan base. For years, fans blamed the Marlins for not spending money on marquee players.

The Marlins finally did that in December, but now the front office is asking itself some tough questions.

Did they choose the wrong free agents? Were their expectations on their existing players too high?

"I think we have to ask ourselves every day: Did we make a poor evaluation or did we make poor business deals as far as our contracts?’’ Beinfest said. "We were probably, at least to this point, more wrong than we were right. And that’s the way it goes and we are going to try to make things better and win games. But none of us envisioned where we are today, but we are. So we have to deal with it.’’

At the same time, the Marlins aren’t sure what they could’ve done differently in December. They didn’t envision Bell, the only reliever with 40 or more saves each of the previous three seasons, blowing six saves and losing the closer’s job; or Reyes, last year’s NL batting champion, hitting below .300; or Buehrle, a model of steadiness for the past decade, to be inconsistent.

They didn’t envision Ramirez to hit below .250 or Johnson to have just six wins and a 4.14 ERA at this point of the season.

"Love the talent we brought in. Loved the existing talent we had there," Beinfest said. "Thought the team had a little bit of everything to compete in a difficult division – front-line starting pitching, speed and defense, fortified bullpen, the whole package. And it’s baseball – it’s not always perfect.’’

Along with a disappointing on-field performance has been a less-than-expected result at the gate. The Marlins are averaging 28,560 at Marlins Park (capacity 37,000), a big improvement over last year (19,007) but less than the mid-30,000s and near sell-outs that the front office envisioned.

People who have spoken to the Marlins say the team’s revenue projections were off. How that affects next year’s payroll remains to be seen. But the Marlins have not ruled out more moves by Tuesday’s nonwaiver trade deadline, and Johnson has been attracting interest from multiple teams.

"I think the fans should be wondering,’’ Beinfest said when asked if more moves were coming.

"We still probably have some additional work to do. Whether that’s going to happen in the next six days, who knows? But between now and next April, we need to look at the middle of the lineup. We need to look at third base and see how we’re going to move ahead.’’

The bottom line on the trades: Even before the moves, the team was not giving the front office any indication that it was ready to play winning baseball.

"There’s probably been more disappointment than joy. This building deserves better. I think our fans deserve better,’’ Beinfest said.

"Are we giving up on the season? I’ll leave that up to you guys. We don’t feel that way. We weren’t winning with the group we had and we want to make changes.’’

Marlins players are doing their best to keep a positive outlook.

"Everyone has kind of got their head down a little bit right now but we’re (nine) games out of the wild card. You never know what can happen. I don’t think any of us are giving up in here,’’ said outfielder Justin Ruggiano.

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